Below you will find the Top 3 finishers for each side listed out in placement order. All of these graphics will be available on my
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Much like last month the top three spots on the Staff side went to a trio of
The Last of Us performers. Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal went back and forth in the top spot until Bella pulled ahead in the final hours. Their castmate, Storm Reid took a firm hold on the third spot. Though the majority of this The Last of Us episode is spent in the past, Bella Ramsey's performance in the opening minutes sets the stage. Ellie is trying to stop Joel (Pedro Pascal) from bleeding out. She is not frantic but determined. She yells for him to shut up when he tries to get her to stop. Ramsey packs an entire lifetime of loss into that line delivery. For most of the episode, Ramsey plays a version of Ellie quite different from the one viewers have been following all season. Not unrecognizable but less hardened. In the moments where Ellie is shown wonder after wonder by Riley (Storm Reid), Ramsey deftly balances the awe and yearning that Ellie experiences during her journey through the relics of an alternate reality. To see these things is to be dazzled and reminded of a world that is lost to her. It's not surprising that Ellie focuses more of her attention on Riley and sees the mall through Riley's eyes. Ramsey brings every emotion to the table in a full-body performance. Riley says there are four wonders she will show Ellie and jokingly ups the number to five, but it's clear that for Ellie, there are six wonders, the foremost of which is Riley. Ramsey is all warmth and swagger, and eager curiosity. The viewers feel every bit of Ellie's joy on what is unmistakably the best day of her life. And when it isn't anymore, when the adrenaline of triumph fades, Ramsey tears everything away from Ellie. The giddiness of her movements, confidence in her posture, and hope in her eyes. Throughout the episode, Ramsey shows us Ellie reckoning with all that the outbreak has taken from her, how she was able to set that aside and seize the gift that Riley was giving her, and how she was resigning herself to a less-than-ideal future. But, in Ellie's shock and anger, Ramsey makes it clear that some awful things were too inconceivable for Ellie to imagine, even in their bleak world. In the present, as in the past, Ellie is destroying things, but she's not smashing glass cases in anger. She's tearing apart a house to find anything that might help Joel. She's reclaiming hope and agency. The stakes have always been high for Ellie on this show. Still, this episode, through Ramsey's performance, raised the emotional stakes unforgettably. Bella Ramsey is SpoilerTV's February Staff Choice Performer of the Month.
READER RESULTS
The race on the Reader’s side was much closer. Two ladies from Station 19 jumped out to big leads early thanks to a dedicated fan base. Danielle Savre, who led the voting from the beginning survived a late push from co-star Stefania Spampinato to take the top spot by less than 20 votes. There was a bit of a battle for the third spot for a short time until Walker: Independence star Katherine McNamara surged ahead to claim the spot for her own. Perennial reader favorite Savre takes home the Spoiler TV Reader's Choice award for February. There's no greater mark of a compelling onscreen character than their ability to hold audience empathy, even when the character pulls themselves and those around them to the brink. Maya Bishop has undoubtedly been doing just that this season of Station 19. She explodes in a scene dripping with emotional pain inflicted and received. It's only possible for a scene to hurt this much when it is built on a riveting performance partnership. Danielle Savre and Stefania Spampinato, indeed, have created that with Maya and Carina. As Bishop lashes out at her wife, Carina, Savre brings Maya's fear and trauma to the surface. She's drowning and can't or doesn't want to see that Carina is trying to save her. So, she pulls Carina under the water with her. Savre is terrifying as Bishop lashes out, throwing the kinds of verbal blows that a person only has the power to throw at someone with whom they share a deep love. An actor has to reach deep within themselves to extract darkness that visceral. And yet, within the scene, Savre doesn't let Maya completely slip out of reach. Even as she's hurling those blows, each one takes a toll, rips a piece of herself away, and her screams by the end are more scared than angry. Somehow, Savre makes the totality of destruction feel cathartic. In her stillness at the end of the episode, as Maya lies unmoving on her hospital bed, viewers can feel the emptiness and the promise that now, finally, there's nothing left for Maya but to start rebuilding. Danielle Savre is SpoilerTV's February Reader's Choice Performer of the Month.
Please join us in the comments and on social media in celebrating winners Bella Ramsey and Danielle Savre as well as the incredible runner-ups. Both winners have secured a place in the 2023 Performer of the Year competition that will take place in January 2024. While the winners and, with its second show victory, The Last of Us are no longer eligible for nomination, all the runner-ups are still eligible to be nominated in 2023.
Come back to Spoiler TV on Saturday, April 1 at 12 pm ET for the start of the March round.
